Posts Tagged ‘shadow’

The firelord was a different creature after he had met his love. The days grew shorter in all other parts of the world. Where she lived, the temperature rose considerably. Tempers flared quickly among strangers. Water rose in value. And the countryside became more desert and less lush. Wars broke out among neighboring governments as resources became harder to maintain.

These times were difficult for me, and I avoided as best I could the sight of the firelord. He was something I could never be. He burned so bright and hot that I became the cool shadow. I would envelope his love so that she would not burn so quickly from his visits. I would cling to the walls so that my home did not burn.

The other elemental lords came to him, some worried for him, and some worried for the people of the world. “Haven’t you noticed the suffering you have caused this world by your obsession?” they said. “Even the one you love suffers for this.”

The waterlady approached, adopting the most sensuous form she had ever assumed, so beautiful that she could silently lure men and lesbians to their doom simply by asking them. Her voice dripped suggestion. “There are those among us who would welcome your advance, firelord. A little steam is no bad thing.”

Nature admonished him. “My plants and animals wither under your neglect”. The lord of politics complained that with no reason left among men, there was no place for him. The moon stood back from this dispute, aloof as ever, simply watching the exchange.

The firelord held his tongue until a small island country was blown asunder as a dormant volcano suddenly raged with unprecedented frustration. The small governments, the wildlife, and any lovers that may have existed there were suddenly erased as lava covered the land and dust covered the sky.

Upon seeing this outburst, the elemental lords decended upon their fire brother and shackled him. “Until you can calm yourself, brother, we will fix you in the sky a safe distance from Earth and we will rotate the universe, so that all sides of the Earth may benefit from your warmth.”

The firelord understood their reasons and the futility of his interest in a fragile human. But as he struggled to cool his temper and so earn his freedom, the years which meant so little to him added up and she died old and warm and missed by me, even though I know she looked every morning into the heavens for something I could never provide. When the firelord remembers her passing, a new volcano rages and sunspots interfere with life on Earth. And then the firelord remembers the reason why he is fixed in the sky and struggles to calm himself.

And I did not die either. For every photon emitted from the firelord, I darken one place. The firelord’s proxy: the shadow.